Midnight
by HerFairy
Summary: Lucy and Natsu are co-workers and best friends at the coffee shop Fairy Tail.


**Based off fanart by Totobeary on tumblr. Basically just fluff, enjoy!**

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Her boss must have been insane to leave him with Lucy for final hours of the day, but one look from manager Mirajane had killed any complaints before she could voice them. So, here she was, trying to pretend she wasn't bored out of her mind, knowing that the slightest sign of weakness would lead Natsu Dragneel into suggesting something crazy and she, gullible and irrevocably in love with him, would most likely agree to it.

She toyed with one of the empty cups, spinning it between her fingers aand her eyes darted to the clock. 11:50. Fairy Tail - the prided coffee shop of Magnolia - closed at midnight except for on special occasions.

Most days were a special occasion, even if the reason was for something trivial; basically, Fairy Tail was always ready party, but thankfully not tonight. She groaned, knowing that she had the closing shift again tomorrow and it was one of their late days.

"Lucy?"

Lucy froze.

11:52.

She couldn't hold in her mental complaints for ten more freaking minutes.

"Yeah, Natsu?" She asked cautiously, straightening and beginning to fiddle with the machines, though she didn't expect anyone to walk in as their countdown to freedom began. _Just eight minutes, Lucy, don't let him trick you into doing something weird in that time. You can do it._

"Who has opening shift? I don't remember," He said, leaning on the counter beside her, adjusting the hat on his head. The forest green uniform might have coupled nicely with his eyes, but his pink hair made him look like a flower, something that she wouldn't admit to his face unless he was being annoying.

(Which meant she told him twice a day).

Suspicious, she replied, "Dunno. Gray maybe?"

A wicked grin crossed his face. "Just wondering."

She narrowed her eyes. "Don't do anything you're not supposed to do, Natsu Dragneel," she threatened, but he waved her words off, so used to her complaints that he had managed to come up with responses to them without having to hear her.

(Which meant that he often said something that didn't match what she said, as though it were a comeback to something she said before).

"I'm not going to blow anything up, sheesh."

She scoffed, knowing that particular response was to the coffee incident of '09, where he had, in fact, blown something up. "Liar, what are you planning?"

"If you look away, you have plausible deniability!"

"There's cameras!"

"Not if I turn them off," he said, grinning.

"Pft, as if you know how."

"What do you think I am, an amateur? I've done it before."

Lucy stared. "You... When?"

"Remember the incident?"

"The... incident? _Natsu_! Gramps nearly lost it!"

Natsu shrugged and grinned, unaware of the knowledge that he had just bestowed upon her about Fairy Tail's greatest mystery. The Incident lived on in infamy, the exactness of it so lost in retellings that nobody knew the original - and nobody ever would because the footage of it was long gone. She, along with every other member of Fairy Tail, had thought it was a hardware issue and Lucy really shouldn't have been surprised to note that it was him.

Lucy broke from her thoughts when she realized he was fiddling with something and she leaped forward, diving between him and the counter, one hand pressed against his chest to hold him back. Whatever he was doing, she had to stop it.

Mirajane would kill her if something happened. Lucy liked living, thank you very much, but somewhere in her panic to stop, Lucy had forgotten that getting close to Natsu Dragneel was about the dumbest move that she could make. She swallowed, aware of the counter digging into her back and the warmth of his body against her front, so close that a tilt of her head brought their faces within inches of each other.

His eyes flickered in surprise, his trump card falling short as a distraction. "Luce?"

"W-What are you doing?" She cursed her stuttering, like she was once more a girl struggling to talk with her first crush. "You're going to get us both into trouble." Her fingers tapped against his chest in warning, but all that did was remind her that they were still standing together, too close to be professional, too close to even be considered "friends only".

"Nothing is going to happen. You know I wouldn't let you get in trouble." She didn't need to respond to that, only stare at him in a deadpan that had him amending his words quickly, a sheepish look crossing his face. "In serious trouble, at least."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "What makes you so eager to cause a ruckus every time you're closing up?"

The grin crossed his face shouldn't have been legal with the way it made her heart jump. His hand rested on her head, the annoying cap keeping him from playing with her hair like usual. The fact that she actually wanted him to do that distracted her enough that she missed the speculative look on his face until he blurted out, "I like making you laugh."

She blinked. "What?"

His face pinked, nearly matching his hair. "Well, you... You've got this frown on your face all the time now, I wanted to give you a reason to smile, even if it doesn't show up for a day or two when Gramps shows us the footage. It's worth the few hours of punishment," he said, his eyes soft as they looked at her. Like she was something precious.

Lucy knew Natsu Dragneel like she knew her favorite book: she knew the words of his story, she knew the lines that seemed insignificant but meant more, she knew the colors of the cover and the embedded words of the title. And yet there was always a line that she missed or overlooked.

She pushed up on her toes, crossing the few inches that separated them to press her lips against his. Her mind screamed _finally_ , trying to drown in the taste of him. His stillness frightened her till his head bent as he returned the kiss with equal fervor and it was as though a thousand butterflies had exploded in her stomach, her body buzzing with excitement. One of his hands held her head, her ponytail resting against his palm, and a breathless giggle escaped her at the way his fingers played with the hair.

Lucy broke from him to get air, her nose brushing his, not wanting to draw any farther from him than required to breathe. "Natsu," she murmured, opening her eyes, unsure of when she had closed them.

With a wicked smile, Natsu put his hands on her hips, lifting her to sit on the counter, chuckling at her yelp of surprise. "Lucy," he replied, his thumb brushing against her flushed cheek.

"Are you trying to distract me?" She asked, hands resting on the counter behind her, a smile crossing her face.

"For once, no, but good idea." Natsu brought his forehead to rest against hers, a grin tugging at his face again as she lifted a hand to whack his chest with mock anger. She hummed as his hand rested on the counter beside her. "Also, you kissed me. Are you trying to distract me from causing mayhem?"

"Hmm, no, but good idea," she parroted back, laughing at his good-natured huff.

In retaliation, he leaned down, capturing her lips once more.

The bell on the door dinged and Lucy jolted back from him; both stared wide-eyed at the customer who walked in then flickered to the clock. 11:58.

Lucy nudged him back to climb off the counter, relieved that the customer was looking at his phone, not at what the two red-faced employees had been doing only seconds before.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, what can I get for you?" She asked breathlessly, sharing a secretive glance with Natsu before facing the customer again, somehow relieved to know that tomorrow was another late night.

...

(When Gramps showed the footage for the week four days later, Fairy Tail's special occasion became the ending of a long running bet that Mirajane won).

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 **oops i wrote this in one sitting so forgive the mistakes. Review please!**


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